Life in our Foothills, November 2015
By Carol Lynn Jackson

Southern food traditions are easy to spot in everyday life in our foothills, but when traditional holidays like Thanksgiving fall upon us, the feast tends to look the same in every part of the country: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy and pies galore.

Hints of Native American traditions, especially in the rural Appalachian areas, have lived on from their original influence, those several hundred years ago.

Southerners pickle things, and Thanksgiving is no exception. “Putting up” our food in this preservation manner really means the sky is the limit. Pickled cucumbers and cabbages are the more obvious items, but pickled peaches, okra, beans, shrimp, corn — even pig’s feet — make you begin to think anything can be pickled. Relish trays on a Southern Thanksgiving Day also host olives and deviled (or pickled) eggs.

If a soup is served, you may see the beet soup or the winter squash and apple combination, but gumbo also tends to show up with chicken and Andouille sausage. I remember one Thanksgiving in Polk County, I dined with a couple families whose heritage runs back a ways in the Green Creek area. Venison stew was on the menu and the highly unexpected (and unsampled by me) turtle soup.

Speaking of venison, or deer meat, although oven roasted turkey is still the star of the show, venison cuts like roast or tenderloin show up, too, especially if deer hunting is the sport of the holiday week. Ham, doused in a Carolina or Georgia cola for a baste and flavor, also rallies for its place at the table. I remember my first brown sugar-glazed Coca Cola ham, and I was not even in Atlanta, Ga.! It was Boone, N.C., in the high country, and a CIA-trained chef made the ham in a bag and the Coca-Cola did all the work of keeping it moist and melt-off-the-bone.

But the real scene-stealers for me on Thanksgiving are the confetti of side dishes. Garlicky, parmesan, mashed potatoes with giblet gravy, oyster and cornbread stuffing, Cajun dirty rice, and traditional sweet potato casserole cover the high carb requirements that launch a post-lunchtime nap. Seasonal greens like kale and collards go well with the ham, green bean casserole and glazed carrots. Parsley-corn, canned from the summer garden, adds vibrant color and vitamins to the whole meal.

Salads and relishes of berries and nuts and creamy slaws always find a home on my bread plate where braided homemade yeast rolls often get saved for next day sandwiches. Why? To save room for pie!

Southern pies! Mississippi mud and sweet potato, pecan and praline, apple and pumpkin: all ingredients we can source in the South, including the mud. Sip a southern sweet tea or a local wine and fill the feast table with friends, family, neighbors, the alone and the lonely. Celebrate the harvest, treasure the blessings, and give thanks for the unconditional love of the Almighty, that we are called to share with one another and through whom all blessings flow.

Happy Thanksgiving, friends!